The concept of Leaderless Resistance was proposed by Col. Ulius Louis
Amoss, who was the founder of International Service of Information
Incorporated, located in Baltimore, Maryland. Col. Amoss died more than
fifteen years ago, but during his life was a tireless opponent of
communism, as well as a skilled Intelligence Officer. Col. Amoss first
wrote of Leaderless Resistance on April 17, 1962. His theories of
organization were primarily directed against the threat of eventual
Communist take-over in the United States. The present writer, with the
benefit of having lived many years beyond Col. Amoss, has taken his
theories and expounded upon them. Col. Amoss feared the Communists.
This author fears the federal government. Communism now represents a
threat to no one in the United States, while federal tyranny represents
a threat to everyone . The writer has joyfully lived long enough to see
the dying breaths of communism, but may, unhappily, remain long enough
to see the last grasps of freedom in America.

In the hope that, somehow, America can still produce the brave sons and
daughters necessary to fight off ever increasing persecution and
oppression, this essay is offered. Frankly, it is too close to call at
this point. Those who love liberty, and believe in freedom enough to
fight for it are rare today, but within the bosom of every once great
nation, there remains secreted, the pearls of former greatness. They
are there. I have looked into their sparking eyes; sharing a brief
moment in time with them as I passed through this life. Relished their
friendship, endured their pain, and they mine. We are a band of
brothers, native to the soil gaining strength one from another as we
have rushed head long into a battle that all the weaker, timid men, say
we can not win. Perhaps...but then again, perhaps we can. It's not over
till the last freedom fighter is buried or imprisoned, or the same
happens to those who would destroy their freedom.

Barring any cataclysmic events, the struggle will yet go on for years.
The passage of time will make it clear to even the more slow among us
that the government is the foremost threat to the life, and liberty of
the folk. The government will no doubt make today's oppressiveness look
like grade school work compared to what they have planned in the
future. Meanwhile, there are those of us who continue to hope that
somehow the few can do what the many have not. We are cognizant that
before things get better they will certainly get worse as government
shows a willingness to use ever more severe police state measures
against dissidents. This changing situation makes it clear that those
who oppose state repression must be prepared to alter, adapt, and
modify their behavior, strategy, and tactics as circumstances warrant.
Failure to consider new methods and implement them as necessary will
make the government's efforts at suppression uncomplicated. It is the
duty of every patriot to make the tyrant's life miserable. When one
fails to do so he not only fails himself, but his people.

With this in mind, current methods of resistance to tyranny employed by
those who love our race, culture, and heritage must pass a litmus test
of soundness. Methods must be objectively measured as to their
effectiveness, as well as to whether they make the government's
intention of repression more possible or more difficult. Those not
working to aid our objectives must be discarded or the government
benefits from our failure to do so.

As honest men who have banded together into groups or associations of a
political or religious nature are falsely labeled "domestic terrorists"
or "cultists" and suppressed, it will become necessary to consider
other methods of organization--or as the case may very well call for:
non-organization. One should keep in mind that it is not in the
government's interest to eliminate all groups. Some few must remain in
order to perpetuate the smoke and mirrors vision for the masses that
America is a "free democratic country" where dissent is allowed. Most
organizations, however, that possess the potential for effective
resistance will not be allowed to continue. Anyone who is so naive as
to believe the most powerful government on earth will not crush any who
pose a real threat to that power, should not be active, but rather, at
home studying political history.

The question as to who is to be left alone and who is not, will be
answered by how groups and individuals deal with several factors such
as: avoidance of conspiracy plots, rejection of feeble minded
malcontents, insistence upon quality of the participants, avoidance of
all contact with the front men for the federals--the news media--and,
finally, camouflage (which can be defined as the ability to blend in
the public's eye the more committed groups of resistance with
mainstream "kosher" associations that are generally seen as harmless.)
Primarily though, whether any organization is allowed to continue in
the future will be a matter of how big a threat a group represents. Not
a threat in terms of armed might or political ability, for there is
none of either for the present, but rather, threat in terms of
potentiality. It is potential the federals fear most. Whether that
potential exists in an individual or group is incidental. The federals
measure potential threat in terms of what might happen given a
situation conducive to action on the part of a restive organization or
individual. Accurate intelligence gathering allows them to assess the
potential. Showing one's hand before the bets are made, is a sure way
to loose.

The movement for freedom is rapidly approaching the point where for
many people, the option of belonging to a group will be nonexistent.
For others, group membership will be a viable option for only the
immediate future. Eventually, and perhaps much sooner than most believe
possible, the price paid for membership will exceed any perceived
benefit. But for now, some of the groups that do exist often serve a
useful purpose either for the newcomer who can be indoctrinated into
the ideology of the struggle, or for generating positive propaganda to
reach potential freedom fighters. It is sure that, for the most part,
this struggle is rapidly becoming a matter of individual action, each
of its participants making a private decision in the quietness of his
heart to resist: to resist by any means necessary. It is hard to know
what others will do, for no man truly knows another man's heart. It is
enough to know what one himself will do. A great teacher once said
"know thyself." Few men really do, but let each of us, promise
ourselves, not to go quietly to the fate our would-be masters have
planned.

The concept of Leaderless Resistance is nothing less than a fundamental
departure in theories of organization. The orthodox scheme of
organization is diagrammatically represented by the pyramid, with the
mass at the bottom and the leader at the top. This fundamental of
organization is to be seen not only in armies, which are of course, the
best illustration of the pyramid structure, with the mass of soldiery,
the privates, at the bottom responsible to corporals who are in turn
responsible to sergeants, and so on up the entire chain of command to
the generals at the top. But the same structure is seen in
corporations, ladies' garden clubs and in our political system itself.
This orthodox "pyramid" scheme of organization is to be seen basically
in all existing political, social and religious structures in the world
today from the Federal government to the Roman Catholic Church. The
Constitution of the United States, in the wisdom of the Founders, tried
to sublimate the essential dictatorial nature of pyramidal organization
by dividing authority into three: executive, legislative and judicial.
But the pyramid remains essentially untouched.

This scheme of organization, the pyramid, is however, not only useless,
but extremely dangerous for the participants when it is utilized in a
resistance movement against state tyranny. Especially is this so in
technologically advanced societies where electronic surveillance can
often penetrate the structure revealing its chain of command.
Experience has revealed over and over again that anti-state, political
organizations utilizing this method of command and control are easy
prey for government infiltration, entrapment, and destruction of the
personnel involved. This has been seen repeatedly in the United States
where pro-government infiltrators or agent provocateurs weasel their
way into patriotic groups and destroy them from within.

In the pyramid type of organization, an infiltrator can destroy
anything which is beneath his level of infiltration and often those
above him as well. If the traitor has infiltrated at the top, then the
entire organization from the top down is compromised and may be
traduced at will.

An alternative to the pyramid type of organization is the cell system.
In the past, many political groups (both right and left) have used the
cell system to further their objectives. Two examples will suffice.
During the American Revolution "committees of correspondence" were
formed throughout the Thirteen colonies.

Their purpose was to subvert the government and thereby aid the cause
of independence. The "Sons of Liberty", who made a name for themselves
dumping government taxed tea into the harbor at Boston, were the action
arm of the committees of correspondence. Each committee was a secret
cell that operated totally independently of the other cells.
Information on the government was passed from committee to committee,
from colony to colony, and then acted upon on a local basis. Yet even
in these bygone days of poor communication, of weeks to months for a
letter to be delivered, the committees without any central direction
whatsoever, were remarkable similar in tactics employed to resist
government tyranny. It was, as the first American patriots knew,
totally unnecessary for anyone to give an order for anything.
Information was made available to each committee, and each committee
acted as it saw fit. A recent example of the cell system taken from the
left wing of politics are the Communists. The Communist, in order to
get around the obvious problems involved in pyramidal organization,
developed to an art the cell system. They had numerous independent
cells which operated completely isolated from one another and
particularly with no knowledge of each other, but were orchestrated
together by a central headquarters. For instance, during World War II,
in Washington, it is known that there were at least six secret
Communist cells operating at high levels in the United States
government (plus all the open Communists who were protected and
promoted by President Roosevelt), however, only one of the cells was
rooted out and destroyed. How many more actually were operating no one
can say for sure.

The Communist cells which operated in the U.S until late 1991 under
Soviet control could have at their command a leader, who held a social
position which appeared to be very lowly. He could be, for example, a
busboy in a restaurant, but in reality a colonel or a general in the
Soviet Secret Service, the KGB. Under him could be a number of cells
and a person active in one cell would almost never have knowledge of
individuals who are active in another cell. The value of this is that
while any one cell can be infiltrated, exposed or destroyed, such
action will have no effect on the other cells; in fact, the members of
the other cells will be supporting that cell which is under attack and
ordinarily would lend very strong support to it in many ways. This is
at least part of the reason, no doubt, that whenever in the past
Communists were attacked in this country, support for them sprang up in
many unexpected places.

The efficient and effective operation of a cell system after the
Communist model, is of course, dependent upon central direction, which
means impressive organization, funding from the top, and outside
support, all of which the Communists had. Obviously, American patriots
have none of these things at the top or anywhere else, and so an
effective cell organization based upon the Soviet system of operation
is impossible.

Two things become clear from the above discussion. First, that the
pyramid type of organization can be penetrated quite easily and it thus
is not a sound method of organization in situations where the
government has the resources and desire to penetrate the structure;
which is the situation in this country. Secondly, that the normal
qualifications for the cell structure based upon the Red model does not
exist in the U.S. for patriots. This understood, the question arises
"What method is left for those resisting state tyranny?" The answer
comes from Col. Amoss who proposed the "Phantom Cell" mode of
organization. Which he described as Leaderless Resistance. A system of
organization that is based upon the cell organization, but does not
have any central control or direction, that is in fact almost identical
to the methods used by the Committees of Correspondence during the
American Revolution. Utilizing the Leaderless Resistance concept, all
individuals and groups operate independently of each other, and never
report to a central headquarters or single leader for direction or
instruction, as would those who belong to a typical pyramid
organization.

At first glance, such a type of organization seems unrealistic,
primarily because there appears to be no organization. The natural
question thus arises as to how are the "Phantom cells" and individuals
to cooperate with each other when there is no intercommunication or
central direction? The answer to this question is that participants in
a program of Leaderless Resistance through phantom cell or individual
action must know exactly what they are doing, and how to do it. It
becomes the responsibility of the individual to acquire the necessary
skills and information as to what is to be done. This is by no means as
impractical as it appears, because it is certainly true that in any
movement, all persons involved have the same general outlook, are
acquainted with the same philosophy, and generally react to given
situations in similar ways. The pervious history of the committees of
correspondence during the American Revolution show this to be true.

Since the entire purpose of Leaderless Resistance is to defeat state
tyranny (at least insofar as this essay is concerned), all members of
phantom cells or individuals will tend to react to objective events in
the same way through usual tactics of resistance. Organs of information
distribution such as newspapers, leaflets, computers, etc., which are
widely available to all, keep each person informed of events, allowing
for a planned response that will take many variations. No one need
issue an order to anyone. Those idealist truly committed to the cause
of freedom will act when they feel the time is ripe, or will take their
cue from others who precede them. While it is true that much could be
said against this type of structure as a method of resistance, it must
be kept in mind that Leaderless Resistance is a child of necessity. The
alternatives to it have been show to be unworkable or impractical.
Leaderless Resistance has worked before in the American Revolution, and
if the truly committed put it to use for themselves, it will work now.

It goes almost without saying that Leaderless Resistance leads to very
small or even one man cells of resistance. Those who join organizations
to play "let's pretend" or who are "groupies" will quickly be weeded
out. While for those who are serious about their opposition to federal
despotism, this is exactly what is desired.

From the point of view of tyrants and would be potentates in the
federal bureaucracy and police agencies, nothing is more desirable than
that those who oppose them be UNIFIED in their command structure, and
that every person who opposes them belong to a pyramid type group. Such
groups and organizations are an easy kill. Especially in light of the
fact that the Justice (sic) Department promised in 1987 that there
would never be another group that opposed them that they did not have
at least one informer in. These federal "friends of government" are
intelligence agents. They gather information that can be used at the
whim of a federal D.A. to prosecute. The line of battle has been drawn.
Patriots are required therefore, to make a conscious decision to either
aid the government in its illegal spying, by continuing with old
methods of organization and resistance, or to make the enemie's job
more difficult by implementing effective countermeasures.

Now there will, no doubt, be mentally handicapped people out there who,
while standing at a podium with an American flag draped in the
background, and a lone eagle soaring in the sky above, will state
emphatically in their best sounding red, white, and blue voice, "So
what if the government is spying? We are not violating any laws." Such
crippled thinking by any serious person is the best example that there
is a need for special education classes. The person making such a
statement is totally out of contact with political reality in this
country, and unfit for leadership of any thing more than a dog sleigh
in the Alaskan wilderness. The old "Born on the fourth of July"
mentality that has influenced so much of the American patriot's
thinking in the past will not save him from the government in the
future. "Reeducation" for non-thinkers of this type will take place in
the federal prison system where there are no flags or eagles, but
abundance of men who were "not violating any law."

Most groups who "unify" their disparate associates into a single
structure have short political lives. Therefore, those movement leaders
constantly calling for unity of organization rather than the desirable
unity of purpose, usually fall into one of three categories.

They may not be sound political tacticians, but rather, just committed
men who feel unity would help their cause, while not realizing that the
government would greatly benefit from such efforts. The Federal
objective, to imprison or destroy all who oppose them, is made easier
in pyramid organizations. Or perhaps, they do not fully understand the
struggle they are involved in and that the government they oppose has
declared a state of war against those fighting for faith, folk, freedom
and constitutional liberty. Those in power will use any means to rid
themselves of opposition. The third class calling for unity and let us
hope this is the minority of the three, are men more desirous of the
supposed power that a large organization would bestow, than of actually
achieving their stated purpose.

Conversely, the last thing Federal snoops would have, if they had any
choice in the matter, is a thousand different small phantom cells
opposing them. It is easy to see why. Such a situation is an
intelligence nightmare for a government intent upon knowing everything
they possibly can about those who oppose them. The Federals, able to
amass overwhelming strength of numbers, manpower, resources,
intelligence gathering, and capability at any given time, need only a
focal point to direct their anger. A single penetration of a pyramid
type of organization can lead to the destruction of the whole. Whereas,
Leaderless Resistance presents no single opportunity for the Federals
to destroy a significant portion of the Resistance.

With the announcement by the Department of Justice (sic) that 300 FBI
agents formerly assigned to watching Soviet spies in the US (domestic
counter intelligence) are now to be used to "combat crime", the federal
government is preparing the way for a major assault upon those persons
opposed to their policies. Many anti-government groups dedicated to the
preservation of the America of our forefathers can expect shortly to
feel the brunt of a new federal assault upon liberty.

It is clear, therefore, that it is time to rethink traditional strategy
and tactics when it comes to opposing a modern police state. America is
quickly moving into a long dark night of police state tyranny, where
the rights now accepted by most as being inalienable will disappear.
Let the coming night be filled with a thousand points of resistance.
Like the fog which forms when conditions are right and disappears when
they are not, so must the resistance to tyranny be.